Today we saw 'Stomp' at the Vaudeville Theatre on the Strand. I didn't know what to expect really, I knew it was percussion, but was that all?
Was that all? That was enough! This show is percussion and nothing but percussion. It's simply wonderful. The rythyms penetrate to the core, and the choreography is something to behold.

There's one place in the show where you don't want to be in the upper circle, or in the back of the theatre (they climb the scenery, and you can't see what's happening) - but we didn't have this issue, we were in the middle of the stalls.

The show isn't one that you watch silently, pretty soon the audience is carried along, people were cheering mid performance. The percussion is so loud, rapid and also surprisingly tonal that it's all pervasive. With 8 people in stage, each making different notes, tunes emerge.

The showstopping piece for me was the piece with the dustbin lids, they were whirling so fast, and striking out with the dustbin lid without looking, simply knowing that the other person would be there with their lid to give the note.... or was it the oil drum stilts.... or the matchboxes..... or the 'reading a newspaper' sequence.....?

This is a show I want to see again, so was Avenue Q, but Avenue Q was a 'see again soon - with 'Stomp' I could see again right now.